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Grace Augustine
'Dr. Grace Augustine is a xenobotanist in charge of the Avatar Program. She is a legend to the scientific personnel as the author of a comprehensive book of Pandora's plants. She helped Jake Sully on the Avatar program, until she died due to a gunshot wound inflicted by Quaritch. Arriving on Pandora several years before Jake Sully, Dr Augustine was reluctant to accept him on her team due to his lack of training and qualifications for the program, but had no choice. When Sully was lost in the forest, she presumed his avatar dead but later found out that his avatar had been taken in by the Omaticaya Clan. Due to Jake's presence, in successive months relations with the clan improved and Augustine was allowed back into the village, until the Hometree was destroyed. Augustine, Sully, and Spellman escape Hell's Gate in an effort to help the Omaticaya, but not before Quaritch fatally wounded Grace while firing at her craft. Jake brings her human form to Neytiri and Mo'at at the Tree of Souls, hoping they could transfer her consciousness into her avatar form, but she was rendered too weak by her wounds. Before she died at the foot of the Tree of Souls, she told Jake that she saw Eywa. Biography Arrival to Pandora Grace arrived several years before the avatar team. She explored the plants of Pandora, and literally wrote the book on the unique botany she discovered, called The Na'vi. She was considered a living legend in the Terran scientific community. Grace also created a school to teach the Na'vi English and their culture until it was shut down. She continued to keep pictures of her students, one of them being Neytiri, on a cabinet in a camp stationed in the Hallelujah Mountains. Arrival of the New Avatar Drivers Several years later, in 2154, the ISV Venture Star deploys shuttles to Pandora, carrying soldiers, technicians and new additions to the Avatar team. These are Norm Spellman (Anthropologist) and Jake Sully (Stand-in for his late twin brother). Grace is sharp with the newcomers, particularly so with Jake, whom she sees as incompetent and an attempt by the military to hijack her program. She makes it clear that she is displeased and considered Jake's brother, Tom Sully, to have skills far more valuable than those Jake offers. Bringing Jake up-to-speed requires a tremendous amount of effort on her part and that of Dr. Max Patel, the technical support officer. Grace also makes her feelings about RDA administrator Parker Selfridge abundantly clear for the benefit of her team. She not only disagrees with Selfridge's principles and agenda, but also his impatience and methods regarding negotiation or pacification of the native Na'vi. Grace and Jake's first avatar encounter takes place in the outdoor recreation area, shortly after Jake takes control of his avatar for the first time. First Expedition With Avatar Team Grace takes Norm and Jake out on a routine expedition to gather samples of Pandoran plant life. She expresses anxieties about Jake's twitchy and overzealous soldier mentality. It is whilst testing Norm's research and sampling abilities that Jake slips away to examine the area further, leading to a freak encounter with a Hammerhead Titanothere followed by a prowling Thanator. In the ensuing chaos, the Thanator pursues Jake's avatar whilst Grace and Norm manage to escape back to their Samson. Jake is separated from the team when he plunges into a waterfall to escape the Thanator. The team - by Grace's insistence - remain for as long as possible attempting a search and rescue. Although bitterly determined, Grace and the others must concede defeat as night rolls in, forcing them to abandon their search until morning. Grace is convinced Jake won't survive that long. The Three Months and the Destruction of Hometree When Jake wakes up, much to the relief of the avatar team, Grace cannot comprehend it when Jake tells her that he managed to infiltrate the Omaticaya clan, and that Neytiri would be personally mentoring him. From then on, her disposition towards Jake improves steadily, offering advice to him, and showing acts of kindness (being concerned over his eating habits and helping to move him into his bunk when he falls asleep while creating a new video log). She acts almost like a mother to him during his time in the Omaticaya Clan until she dies. Due to Jake being a member of the clan, she is allowed to re-enter Hometree, much to the delight of some of her former Na'vi students. However, the three months that Quaritch had allocated to Jake soon disappear, and she along with Jake try to convince the Na'vi to flee Hometree unsuccessfully. When the RDA gives them one last chance to convince the natives to relocate, they are labeled as traitors and bound. As Mo'at sees the carnage the RDA wrecks, she pleads to the two to save her people and frees them. As they run for cover, their link pods are deactivated and their Avatar forms tumble lifelessly. While Jake's body is left at the ashes of Hometree, Grace's body is brought to the Tree of Souls. Escape from Hell's Gate and Death After being incarcerated by the RDA, Trudy Chacon and Dr. Max Patel free the avatar team and they head to Trudy's Samson to escape. However, Quaritch is alerted, and without grabbing an Exopack he races out to the hangar and fires an Assault Rifle before using his Wasp sidearm. Although the team manages to escape, Grace suffers a major bullet wound and Jake attempts to help her live long enough to reach the Omaticaya clan at the Tree of Souls to seek Mo'at's help. After Jake enters his avatar form and manages to bond with and ride a Toruk to the Tree of Souls, to the amazement of the Na'vi, he seeks their help to rescue Grace. In a trance-like state, the Na'vi and Mo'at pray, hoping that Eywa will permanently transfer Grace's consciousness to her avatar body. Unfortunately, she succumbs to her wound, but before she passes away, Grace tells Jake that she sees Eywa. While Grace's consciousness did not successfully transfer to her avatar, the neural link created when the tendrils of the Tree of Souls interfaced with her human body allowed her full memories to be "downloaded" into the "organic computer" of Pandora's ecosystem. Later, Jake begged Eywa for help in the struggle against the RDA by asking it to access Grace's memories, which would reveal how Earth's ecosystem had been destroyed by humans, a danger which Pandora now faced. Apparently this was successful, as Eywa heard Jake's plea and sent aid to help in the final battle against the RDA. In the Games Grace also makes appearances in the Avatar video game for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. She is shown at the very beginning of the game greeting Able Ryder, the game's protagonist, as he arrives in a Valkyrie shuttle en route to Hell's Gate, warning him about Pandora's many hazards. Also, if the player allies with the RDA, she is shown at the very end, congratulating Ryder on his victory against the Na'vi through the RDA's seizure of the Tree of Souls. There is also a hidden scene in the game where Grace will talk to Ryder one more time. In the Command Tower where Dr. Monroe and Commander Falco are located, there is a large screen showing Earth. If you go to one of the OPS Halo Stations in front of the screen, you will have the option to inspect, and Grace will appear on the screen. This begins a dialogue between Grace and Ryder. She will criticize Ryder for his/her fight with Rene Harper. She will tell him the things may look black and white, but once you start to get used to it and focus, you will see things for what they really are. This can hint towards the option for Ryder to side with Na'vi for a last chance towards the end of the game. This will only work if Ryder sides with RDA, because joining the Na'vi will forever stop Ryder from entering Hell's Gate. Personality and Traits She appears to be very fond of and close to her Na'vi students, who seem to show the same feelings toward her; this is demonstrated when they take her unconscious Avatar body to the Tree of Souls with them after the destruction of Hometree. As a scientist, Grace Augustine's primary concern is with her work. She demonstrates her dedication to the study of Pandora and the Na'vi early and often; this dedication manifests itself as hostility towards Col. Quaritch and Parker Selfridge, who do not share her enthusiasm. As a result of this hostility, it is considered by many outside the Avatar program that Grace is little more than a lonely scientist, and that she loves plants more than humans. Possibly as an escape from her poor relationship with her colleagues, Grace is a smoker and a moderate drinker. She later shows her warmer side in her concern for Jake's well being. When in her avatar form, Grace seems more enthusiastic about her work and more cheerful and kind instead of irritable. Trivia *There are some foreshadowing lines on the film, for example: **Grace, looking at a display showing the Tree of Souls: "I would die to get samples there." - She does, in fact, die there. **Grace to Quaritch: "What are you going to do, Ranger Rick? Shoot me?" Quaritch: "I can do that." - Quaritch ends up mortally wounding her in the escape. *Grace's smoking and drinking have been one of the criticisms thrown at Avatar by some anti-smoking organizations, who say that she is setting a bad example for young children who might see the film. *Grace's avatar bears far more resemblance to her human form than other avatars. Her avatar form lacks a typical, flat na'vi nose and has facial structure and traits very similar to her human form. *In Cameron's original concept, Grace was named "Grace Shipley," while her role as head of the Avatar program was originally assumed by Dr. Brantley Giese, a character omitted from the final film. Also in the original scriptment, she survives the consciousness transfer to be reborn as a Na'vi. *Sigourney Weaver reprised her role in a Saturday Night Live Skit *Strangely, she congratulates Able Ryder on defeating the Na'vi rather than despising him/her for it. *Its been announced that Sigourney Weaver has signed on to reprise her role as Grace in the second film. The character having died in the first film, is said to be making a comeback but how at this stage in time isn't known as of yet. Quotes "There are many dangers on Pandora, and one of the subtlest is that you may come to love it too much." :- Intro to the Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide. "They are just pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain." :- Grace to Jake upon first meeting "So you just figured you come out here, to the most hostile environment known to man, with no training of any kind, and see how it went?" :- Grace talking to Jake. "Just relax and let your mind go blank. It shouldn't be hard for you." :- Grace giving Jake instructions. "Norm, you've contaminated the sample with your saliva ..." :- Grace cautioning Norm Spellman while taking samples in Pandora's forests. "Run, definitely run!" :- Grace shouting to Jake when he sees the Thanator. "Oh, shit!" :- Grace when the Omaticaya discover that Jake and Neytiri mated. " What are you going to do ranger Rick? Shoot me?"' :- Grace to Quaritch at meeting with Selfridge about Jakes attack on the robo dozer. "The wealth of this world isn't in the ground, it is all around us." :- Dr. Augustine before the destruction of Hometree. "I need to take some samples." :- Grace at the Tree of Souls, shortly before her death. "Jake ... I'm with her ... she's real." :- Grace right before her passing. References de:Grace Augustine es:Grace Augustine nl:Grace Augustine pl:Grace Augustine Category:Avatar Category:Characters Category:Human Category:Avatars Category:RDA Category:Deceased